So today I will be cutting what may be the most dangerous fallen tree that I've ever ventured. Wish me luck.
A red oak 35 feet long and 20 inches thick that is driven into the railroad track, approximately 4 feet underground and pinned on the other end against the steep hillside, which caused it to bow in the middle. It's an immensely unstable 3.5 tons of tree waiting to unleash it's pent-up energy, but there's a lot of oak firewood there. I think I have the physics figured out, and I cleared an escape route, but who knows with mother nature?
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@UnderLockDown @Tastyfrzz @MarineBob @Piper @exexec @Magenta @Teslin I've been cutting for over 50 years and have had everything bad happen to me that can happen or be imagined without actually getting killed. And I still never know for sure what a fallen tree under stress will do. I put upward pressure on the bow with my grandfather's old mechanical railroad jack pictured below. On my second partial cut where it was buried in the ground, the tree shifted left and pinned my chainsaw bar. The railroad jack has a free fall release, so I set it to fall and threw a brick from about 10 feet away and tripped the down lever. The tree crashed downward, shifted right, and it's own weight snapped the tree right where the bar was pinched, releasing the saw. The tree then sprang upward, separated from the underground part and miraculously dangled from the hillside, off the ground, stable and waist high. I safely lopped off 16 inch chunks and the logs rolled harmlessly down the hill to the tracks. I got two hugely overweight truckloads home and unloaded. I'll get the rest tomorrow morning if I'm not too sore. I'm bushed.
